the SBI thread, tips, tricks and success stories

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

If your Improve Vision Naturally site isn't with SBI, what keyword research tools do you use for that site? E.g. Do you just use the keyword research tools that SBI offers for Improve Vision Naturally (I assume you still have access to them if World of Lucid Dreaming is still with SBI).

Hey Bruce

You're spot on. I still have my SBI membership with World of Lucid Dreaming, and this gives me 25 free Wordtracker searches, and I had plenty left, so I used that for Improve Vision Naturally.

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

What made you host Improve Vision Naturally on something other than SBI? What platform are you hosting it on now? (I checked it out. It seems to be just a standard HTML website. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

For me, the first main benefit of SBI is in the education and the step-by-step processes laid out. Having created World of Lucid Dreaming just a few months earlier, I already knew the steps to success. It was just a case of replicating the same principles of pre-selling, online marketing, traffic building, etc, etc. I didn't need to buy another subscription for that.

The second major benefit of SBI is the outsourcing of technical processes. I made World of Lucid Dreaming on my own, as a techno-dummy, and was immensely proud of it. That was when I began to realize that my future was in online business, so I called in the cavalry. My partner Peter is a web designer and developer (people find this ironic but he always had his own business to run - SBI was always MY baby ) so for site #2 it was time to get him involved.

We put our heads together and I shared the SBI secrets with him and he shared some of his tech-savvy with me. I learned how to use the HTML editor DreamWeaver properly so I could build all my pages in it from scratch. Then he purchased the domain and put it with his web host - dont even ask me what its called, I have no clue!

The result was, I was able to create an SBI-principled website (I wouldn't do it any other way) while Peter did the design, HTML, FTP and all the technical stuff that SBI would normally take care of. Handy eh!! This was a unique solution for me - I understand not everyone lives with their own personal web developer. If it weren't for Peter I would definitely have used SBI for Improve Vision Naturally.

So my advice to you is get SBI for the education. There are still tech-savvy people who use SBI, and they take advantage of all the advanced functions (like uploading your own HTML pages). While the back end is simplified for beginners, it's not as dummy as people make out, it just caters for dummies as most people dont know how to do this themselves. Yes you can transfer to another host or blog platform later if you want to, but SBI will give you such a flying start - you may never want to switch anyway!

[ImtrouncingU]

Can someone help with figure out how to change the font on my page? I am using site central home page editor and I don't see an option to change it.

[Henri J]

Hey guys,

This seems like a nice thread, the water looks warm so I'll jump in.

I have two SBI websites. One I started about 1½ years ago that I totally butchered because I used bad keywords but the traffic on it has been climbing for the last 6 months and it has over 10,000 pageviews/month.

My new SBI site I started 3 months ago and it has already been sniffing at 200 uniques/day and has so far this month had over 10,000 pageviews so the keywords do definitely matter and I've been working like a maniac on it, I have about 160 pages up.

My first website is paying for itself and making $100-200/month mostly from affiliates and advertising, I am satisfied with that considering the horrible butchering of keywords and all that.

My second website is making around $100/month already from adsense and affiliates.

I think of myself as a pretty tech-savvy guy, I've been around computers ever since I was 12-13 and my father brought home our first computer (about 10 years ago).

Like I've told you before Rebecca, I have my eyes on one of those templates as soon as my second website starts making enough money to pay for it and if my first website keeps improving like it has I might just do one there as well.

Btw Rebecca, how much does your hosting cost outside of SBI? I've been looking into that for my next website but a good host like Pair (which Steve uses I think) costs almost as much as SBI for a whole year, that makes me just want to stick with SBI.

Edit: I just talked to DreamHost support (where I host my poker blog) and they said that I could host as many websites as I liked for the same price on my current one, that makes things a little bit different

[Rebecca800]

Hi Henri

I've told Peter about your SBI sites and he's happy to take a look at a new design for you - anytime you're ready

As for the host, he has a business account that lets him host lots of websites for a fixed price. Since he does the design and ongoing development for a number of clients, he has about 20 on the same account.

There are real cheap hosts you can get, just beware some aren't as reliable as others and not all have the same customer service levels. Peter went through several hosts that all let him down in some way or another - eg websites going down for 48 hours with no contact or explanation from the host!

[90802]

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry if I"m being a naughty boy here, but I didn't search through the entire to see if these questions have already been answered. I guess I can handle the spanking though. Not that I'd enjoy it or anything.

Ok, back on track!!!

I need some help with you keyword experts. I really do get how important keywords are, but, I dunno, it gets really complicated forcing the keywords in there. Let me give you an example:

I finished my first Tier 2 last week,and posted my first Tier 3 page a few days ago. The main keyword for the three Tier 3 pages I have planned for this Tier 2 is "parts of a song".

Hmm, let me try this another way.

Tier 2 Keyword: Song Structure

Tier 3 pages

Page 1: Parts of a song-Verse
Page 2: Parts of a song- Chorus
Page 3: Parts of a song- Bridge

So, parts of a song will be in my filename for all three pages. I'm pretty sure that's acceptable (parts-of-a-song-1.html, parts-of-a-song-2.html, etc), but it's giving me more headaches than expected.

The Tier 3 I wrote for the verse was giving me problems when I went through Analyzer. I decided to use headlines, but it still gave me a failing grade. I mean, is there a specific number of times I need to weave the main keyword into the text? Is it the length of the article (1100 words) that's giving me a problem?

How about the secondary keywords? What I've been doing is using about five keywords per page, and stuffing as many of them as I can into the opening paragraph. Do I need to make sure to repeat those secondary keywords (that are listed in the keyword tag) several times in the text? Or is once enough, then figger out ways to stuff the main keyword in some more?

Oooo, next question!!!!

I'm having a problem between content and keywords (well, dur, I guess that's obvious now eh? ). I want to write a series of Tier 3 articles under a Tier 2 titled "How to write a song". The goal is to break down every step of the process, so that someone completely new can get working on their first song fairly fast.

Here's the problem-

The songwriting concept is strong, and I have some good keywords, but, there aren't any keywords for many of the articles I want to write. Example: I want the first page to explain measures, bars, how long to make choruses, verses, etc. Very basic stuff. I don't know if I should just use some high demand Tier 3 words and get them in there, or what. I don't want to be deceptive, but I want people to find me! Can I have it both ways?

If you've made it this far, you are a saint. Please be extra saintly and help me

[Henri J]

Hi 90802,

To be honest, it seems to be that you are not using profitable keywords.

For every Tier 2 you need to have Demand above 1000 and supply below 1000.

For every Tier 3 you need Demand above 150-200 and supply below 100.

I could be totally wrong here. I just woke up so if you're already doing this then ignore me, but if you're coming up with stuff that you "think" your visitors want then you're in for a bumpy ride.

You have to brainstorm Tier 2s and 3s after profitable keywords. Having parts of a song be the filename for all tier 3 pages shows some fundamental flaws in your keywords, you want a separate filename for every page and write pages for stuff that people are actually searching.

I just checked out your Tier 2 "Parts of a Song" and it is better suited for a Tier 3.

It had Demand 356, Supply 39. It is perfect for a Tier 3 but not a Tier 2.

Look at the keyword "how to write a song" for example, it has a Demand of 4,933 and Supply of 223. A perfect Tier 2, and you could have parts of a song as a Tier 3. That is how you should structure your pages.

You have to be ruthless with keywords if you want traffic, otherwise you'll be stuck after 6-12 months complaining that you only have 25 visitors/day and you don't know what went wrong

Use these guidelines:

Tier 2: Minimum... Demand 1000+, Supply under 1000
Tier 3: Minimum... Demand 150-200+, Supply under 100

If you deviate from these (like most who don't get traffic do) you'll have trouble.

[Rebecca800]

Henri, that is great advice!

90802, your filename should be your main keyword, and nothing else. So parts-of-a-song-1.html has gotta change! I haven't researched this keyword or anything but shouldn't it be something like.... how-to-write-a-verse.html ?

I know it's 5 keywords, which is the max, and you need to check it for demand / supply figures, but that should be easy enough to weave into your text and headings. ("How to..." articles are great, by the way.)

If your article is 1100 words long, then you need to include your main keyword lots more times than if it was only 500 words long. Almost double, in fact. SBI calculates the golden ratio for keywords to normal words and you have to fall in a certain bracket to pass Analyze It.

Use your main keyword in the first and last 90 characters of your article. Then scatter it sparingly throughout the whole article, with more towards the beginning and end. The same can go for secondary keywords but its not as important. However do use them several times again - once at the beginning is definitely not enough!

(I don't know if this is true, but someone told me the META keyword tags are hardly looked at by search engines now, as they are so easily manipulated. Instead, Google will look at your body text for recurring words and themes. Hence the need for multiple repetitions of keywords.)

Finally, if you want to write an article that doesn't cover any really good keywords - then just do the best you can and focus on making it great for human readers. It's still quality content for the site and you can still link to it internally. However, don't get carried away with these types of articles at this early stage - you want to get the traffic with highly SEO'd articles first. Good luck!

[90802]

Rebecca and Henri,

First, thanks for responding. I appreciate it. It's really late, and I've been pruning this damn article, so I"m not at my most alert

Parts of a song is actually a Tier 3 page. The Tier 2 page is "Song Structure", which easily meets the demands of a Tier 2 page (I printed out that article that Annelie from rosegardensmadeeasy posted).

How to write a song is definitely on my list. However, here's the problem. I can set that up as a Tier 2 keyword, but then what? I do have profitable Tier 3 keywords, but I'd have to figure out how to manipulate it so it'd make sense.

Blagh! I need a new way to think of new keywords, and a way to think about keywords in general. I"m just not sure how to organize it all together.

"How to write a song", "writing song lyrics", and "free songwriting tips" are all good Tier 2 keywords. I just don't know the best way to branch off of them. I do have a few more keywords for lyrics, but, "how to write a song" and "free songwriting tips" seems a bit more complicated. I guess it just seems to me it makes the site navigation a bit more hectic.

Should I do a keyword search for each of the Tier 2's, and see what Tier 3's I can branch from that? What about lateral searches? Like, put in "writing song lyrics" and see what branches off of that?

How do you structure your articles? Do you find a good Tier 2, then work up a set of Tier 3 pages before getting started on the Tier 2?

Ahhh, Rebecca, "how to write a chorus" did pull up an acceptable result. I guess I didn't think it would since I tried to enter "chorus", and nothing turned up.

Ok, I just brought 500 wordtracker credits. I have a lot of searching to do. Any tips? Start with an idea for a page and put in words that may be in the body of that page?

Oh oh! One more question for now. Promise

I did find a keyword for verses. Should I change my "parts of a song" page that I used to write about verses? Delete the page and upload with new keywords? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Chris

[90802]

So, I went to bed about 7 am, woke up at noon. I've been at the computer reading over a VERY long thread about Brainstorm It, and I"m getting a lot of useful information.

Here's what I"m going to do, so let me know what you folks think of this.

First, I'm going to look over the spreadsheets I already have saved, and pull all the keywords with Demand>1000 and Supply <1000 into one page (for Tier 2 pages)

Next, I'll search for Demand >500, Supply <500 (someone said supply under 1000 is fine if the demand is over 500. Not sure how I feel about that one. Any thoughts? ). This would be where I'd like to start for the Tier 3 pages.

Finally, Demand >100, Supply <100. These will be my secondary choices for Tier 3 pages.

After I pick five Tier 2 pages, I'm going to start digging through the Tier 3 pages and see what logically follows. This is more like putting a puzzle together. How fun.

So yeah, back to reading! Any other thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Oh, if any of you have good keywords I could search for that would be variations of "songwriting", let me know. I've already done searches for lyrics, chords, melody, and so on. Now I just need to figger out how to dig a little deeper.

Thanks!

Chris

[Rebecca800]

Hey Chris, sounds like you are on your way now!

As you found out, its easy to get all tangled up in site structure and keywords. So plan all your Tier 2 and Tier 3 pages before you write any articles.

Keep reading those Brainstorm It threads at SBI and make full use of the Action Guide and help articles. Things will continue to click into place.

[ImtrouncingU]

I had no idea that each of my tier two keywords had to be that high in demand and that low in competing sites. The action guide says that anything under 80k sites is ok. WTF? Now I am screwed because the only decent keyword I have is my site concept. I didn't realize I needed that kind of demand.

Rebecca, halp!***













***LOL bruntha

[ImtrouncingU]

I am kind of discouraged now, looking at these websites. It seems like it takes forever to get one of these off the ground. And even a really good website only pulls in 600 a month . It is going to be really hard to make alot of money doing this.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by ImtrouncingU

I am kind of discouraged now, looking at these websites. It seems like it takes forever to get one of these off the ground

It's like cleaning a garage... Just do a little bit every day and it will eventually get done. Be sure to enjoy the process -- that's most important!

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by ImtrouncingU

I had no idea that each of my tier two keywords had to be that high in demand and that low in competing sites. The action guide says that anything under 80k sites is ok. WTF? Now I am screwed because the only decent keyword I have is my site concept. I didn't realize I needed that kind of demand.

Rebecca, halp!

Hey, I'm not sure what you mean by 'anything under 80k sites' but SBI does give specific figures about having X many keywords with demand over 1000 (and comparatively low supply/competition).

My best advice is go re-read the Action Guide - the bit about using Brainstorm It and how to interpret your Master Keyword List

I can't remember the exact requirements for a profitable site but all the figures are there.... Good luck and hope you can still make it work! (what's your site by the way?)

[ImtrouncingU]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Hey, I'm not sure what you mean by 'anything under 80k sites' but SBI does give specific figures about having X many keywords with demand over 1000 (and comparatively low supply/competition).

My best advice is go re-read the Action Guide - the bit about using Brainstorm It and how to interpret your Master Keyword List

I can't remember the exact requirements for a profitable site but all the figures are there.... Good luck and hope you can still make it work! (what's your site by the way?)

I don't know, I watched the entire SBI! video guide. And the only thing I could find about the demand and competition for your site concept was over 2k demand and under 80k competing sites. I achieved this for my site concpet keyword, but I don't have enough high demend tier 2 keywords now. They didn't lay that part out so well.

[90802]

Originally Posted by ImtrouncingU

I don't know, I watched the entire SBI! video guide. And the only thing I could find about the demand and competition for your site concept was over 2k demand and under 80k competing sites. I achieved this for my site concpet keyword, but I don't have enough high demend tier 2 keywords now. They didn't lay that part out so well.

Here are two threads you should check out. It is a decent bit of reading, but both are fantastic.

The first thread is on Brainstormer and choosing your niche:
Site Build It! Forums :: Log in

The next one is on choosing the keywords that make the money:

Site Build It! Forums :: Log in

Both of those have been a HUGE help for me. Check em out.

[ImtrouncingU]

thanks 908

[Henri J]

Originally Posted by ImtrouncingU

I am kind of discouraged now, looking at these websites. It seems like it takes forever to get one of these off the ground. And even a really good website only pulls in 600 a month . It is going to be really hard to make alot of money doing this.

A really good website has a lot more visitors than that. 600 is just a stepping stone. There are many SBI websites that are well researched and done nicely that have 2000-3000 visitors/day and the largest have 5000-10000/day.

I am just researching and building a new website, I am in the process of finding
really good keywords and it isn't easy!

I like to go to similar websites and look at their keywords for ideas, sometimes
the best keywords are the hardest to find. Use different variations of keywords, synonyms and anything!

This isn't easy, and it is pretty common to stumble in the beginning. I built a whole website (my first) around bad keywords and it sucks but I learned a lot and my new website is taking of now (3 months old and over 200 unique visitors per day already).

So doing your keyword research and being relentless about finding the good ones will pay off tremendously in the future.

I have to get some sleep, I hope this rant helped

[ImtrouncingU]

Thanks Henri

[Sam kovacs]

Since i haven't got SBI yet but i have to write articles to convince my dad( Read my thread to get the details) i use this https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Is it all i need or do i need more?

[Daffy Duck]

Sam, that's a good way to get started. Also checkout Wordtracker's free tool: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool From Wordtracker

[alexplatups]

Originally Posted by ImtrouncingU

I don't know, I watched the entire SBI! video guide. And the only thing I could find about the demand and competition for your site concept was over 2k demand and under 80k competing sites. I achieved this for my site concept keyword, but I don't have enough high demand tier 2 keywords now. They didn't lay that part out so well.

another good approach is to print out and read the Action Guide also,
sometimes this might help. This is what I had to do after HenriJ started
posting in the SBI forum thread Sharing Everyday Progress about his great
results with one of his sites, and the keyword demand, supply, profit numbers

but of course the best is to read that link that 90802 gave you, where Annalie
explains how to properly build the tier2/tier3 structure using keywords

everything depends on your niche though, how many people are looking
for it, and what comes in their mind when they want to use a search engine
to find information on that topic

maybe if you wrote what topic you are interested in, everyone could give
more focused advice and maybe some ideas that will really help you out

[Inscient]

I was thinking of starting another website earlier this year, boy am I glad I didn't! I need to go through all the stages of the process regarding my first website before I even think about starting another one.

[alexplatups]

Originally Posted by Inscient

I was thinking of starting another website earlier this year, boy am I glad I didn't! I need to go through all the stages of the process regarding my first website before I even think about starting another one.

before I became aware how much work it really take to create a profitable
online business, I had a similar desire, and I even have a free SBI site that
I started, but after a few hours working on it I realized that I have to stay
completely focused on building my first one, and only when I reach my
monthly revenue goals, then I will think about something else

or maybe I won't and will keep building this one for many years! It all really
depends on your personality, your likes, desires, true wants.

Some people can build a hundred sites, some can only build one, as with
everything else in life, there are no formulas, everything has to be
individualized taking into account *who you are*

[Inscient]

Originally Posted by alexplatups

before I became aware how much work it really take to create a profitable
online business, I had a similar desire, and I even have a free SBI site that
I started, but after a few hours working on it I realized that I have to stay
completely focused on building my first one, and only when I reach my
monthly revenue goals, then I will think about something else

or maybe I won't and will keep building this one for many years! It all really
depends on your personality, your likes, desires, true wants.

Some people can build a hundred sites, some can only build one, as with
everything else in life, there are no formulas, everything has to be
individualized taking into account *who you are*

I have seen a few people who have a hundred sites many of their sites get no traffic at all. Unless someone has staff to build that many sites, I would think that they are spreading themselves to thinly.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Inscient

I have seen a few people who have a hundred sites many of their sites get no traffic at all. Unless someone has staff to build that many sites, I would think that they are spreading themselves to thinly.

Yeah, I agree. Their logic is flawed.

"Oh, I have one crappy site and it's not making me money. I'll try creating a hundred more just like it!"

[alexplatups]

Originally Posted by Inscient

I have seen a few people who have a hundred sites many of their sites get no traffic at all. Unless someone has staff to build that many sites, I would think that they are spreading themselves too thinly.

To create a moderate size content site it really does take a lot of work, and
in my opinion to see some impressive traffic from keywords, taking into
account that they have been chosen successfully, you must have about
500 pages with really solid content that is foused on your targeted traffic

this means that you have to find 500 keywords, and create an awesome
site structure with really easy navigation for your readers. The Look and
Feel also helps a lot, but in the end it is about the quality of your content,
does it help your readers to move toward their dreams and desires, or not?

in the end a high quality, high traffic website, takes many, many hours of
work, and a constant improvement that comes from focusing on one thing,
and one thing only....*what does your targeted traffic want?*

if you know the answer, you have a chance of succeeding, if you do not,
most likley you will not!

as always there are exceptions to any rule, but a successful, profitable
business online or offline fullfills their customers wants and needs better
than their competition, and this is what makes the difference in the end

the customer is king, everything must be focused on making him happy, and
this can be accomplished in many ways, but one of the best is definitely by
treating him or her ten times better than you would like to be treated

anyone who does this successfully will eventually succeed, because their
customers will consider them as the number one choice, and as some
billionaire once said...there is always a demand for the best!

[Bene]

Hi guys,
I am following this thread keenly. I haven't yet signed up with SBI... but I am considering the possibility.

I understand that careful research before venturing on a website is the key to its success. What is the difference between research on SBI through its keyword search versus that of wordtracker or Google Adwords:keyword tool?

thanks!

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by Bene

I understand that careful research before venturing on a website is the key to its success. What is the difference between research on SBI through its keyword search versus that of wordtracker or Google Adwords:keyword tool?

Hi Bene

SBI uses Wordtracker for its data, and then presents it in a way that you can handle and sort the data (demand vs supply vs profitability). This makes it easy to eliminate low demand and high supply keywords, and also do a lateral search for related keywords (based on the keyword tags from your competitors sites... if I remember right!)

You are left with a list of several hundred profitable keywords, called your Master Keyword List, with meaty, high value keywords and supporting 'catcher' keywords so you can exploit all the holes in your niche and not go chasing directly after your competitors.

In comparison, using Google Keyword shows you the demand - but not supply - and the advertiser competition (assuming you're using it for Google AdWords, I guess). You cant manage that data to determine the gap in your market, only see if you have picked a popular niche. Neither does it give a profitability value.

I have never used Wordtracker directly so can't compare, but I think I heard its cheaper to buy SBI with 25 free searches, than an annual subscription to Wordtracker anyway?? (I have used about 10 searches, on two sites, you really dont need that many once you identify your main keywords...)

Im sure others can give you even more insight, that's just my little bit of experience.

[90802]

Rebecca and others,

How do you go about choosing secondary keywords for your pages? If you have a Tier 2 page, do you just pick a few Tier 3 keywords to add in. A Tier 3 page, just pick lower demand words? I have the general concept of Tier 2 and 3 main keywords down, just not sure how to add additional words. Or just figure some keywords that would fit in naturally with what I"M writing about and add them?

I think I've sort of figgered it out. I picked keywords for 5 Tier 2's, and around 25 Tier 3's. I outlined the entire site, and will work on building those pages. After I finish those 25, I'll outline keywords for another 25 pages, and go on. I think I need to do it in bulk like that so I don't keep repeating myself. But after I get the first 30 pages up, I plan to work on adding 2-3 pages a week, and spend the rest of the time on a few product ideas, and building traffic.

How did you folks plan your sites? Any tips for mining for great keywords?


Alex-

You believe someone must have 500 pages of content before they can be successful? That's a hell of a lot of content! Are there even that many concepts that have 500 or more profitable and relevant keywords (keywords with demand over 100)?

Thanks everyone, and I should have some valuable insight over the next 2 months